Wrap up Portugal (2)

The drive to Porto was all mapped out with plenty of time to get us to the Graham's Port tour and tasting that had been set up ahead of time by our friend, Nathalie, from Grand Vins de France in Anguilla. The navigation system was working swimmingly. We were on schedule or ahead. Until we got to the address we were given and found ourselves in a very residential part of town at some apartment buildings. Multiple calls to the Graham's PR department and several stops along the way to ask for directions (of guys having coffee and even the guard at Graham's competitor, Taylor's Ports) and we finally arrived not 20 minutes early but 40 minutes late. But it was well worth it.

Lovely facility. Special VIP tour and five really nice glasses of port later we still had to find our way to our hotel on the other side of the river Douro. Michael had to navigate some pretty narrow streets (but the helpful locals did come running to help us with maneuvers) after having had all of the port and we missed and turn and had to retrace our steps but we were rewarded with a lovely evening in a really adorable little town and enjoyed fresh grilled sardines for dinner with a view of the Ponte Luiz.

Wednesday morning we rode the funicular up the hill to stroll around some more but had to head back to Madrid to return our car and fly home. Unfortunately, we had to take a bit of an out of the way route to avoid one of Portugal's 'electronic toll device only' roads. It was touch and go for a while as we found ourselves winding our way through the mountains at a relative snails pace. But somehow we managed to roll into a parking place in the Hertz lot just as the low fuel light popped on and just in time to catch the last shuttle back to our hotel. Perfect.


 

Wrap Up Portugal (1)

Even on vacation, sometimes especially on vacation, time gets away from me. I'm sitting in the airport hotel in Miami now having arrived last night from Madrid via JFK and waiting not to get on my way to SXM and ultimately home later today. So even though it's only 5A here it's 11A in Madrid and I'm wide awake. But this gives me an opportunity to finish this trip's diary before I get home and real life takes over again. So where were we?

Lisbon. A big city. No getting around that. But in the midst of it all there are castles and churches and cathedrals and monuments and inexpensive food (not fancy but good and really abundant) and a Starbucks (that did not, to Michael's disappointment, know what an eggnog latte was). Unfortunately, I forgot one of the major rules of sightseeing...that being that many museums etc are closed on Mondays and our one full day in Lisbon was Monday. So we took a Yellow Bus tour around and did climb around on the ramparts of the castle and strolled around a bit, but the views and the sights were mostly not particularly photo-worthy.

Tuesday we were on our way to Porto, but we couldn't leave until we got to see the San Jeronimos Monastery which didn't open until 10A.  Now that's an impressive bit of architecture. Those church folks sure knew how to do ornate.

 

 

 

Then we were off and running to Porto.....

 

Where am I?

Today we drove from Evora to Lisbon via Sintra but due to a time warp we ended up in a version of San Francisco.

 

That's the Ponte 25 de Abril. Looks vaguely familiar, no?
Turns out it was built in the 60's by the American Bridge Company that built....you guessed it....
the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Ha! Got you there. You thought I was going to say the Golden Gate Bridge, huh?

Anyway, we had lunch in Sintra after touring the National Palace which we had to see because there is a Magpie Room wherein the ceiling is covered with ......
Swans! Ha! Got you again. There IS a Swan Room but we were more interested in the Magpie Room.

We also had our hearts set on visiting the toy museum, but apparently it closed just about a month ago so no luck there. So back into Lisbon to stroll around the waterfront and to have a nice dinner in a quaint little place.

(Oh, and when we checked into the hotel, I flipped on the TV only to land on a music video channel playing.....you guessed it....."All About That Bass".....no really. Not kidding this time. )

 

Evora portugal

Friday we left Seville and Spain and headed for Portugal. The countryside was lush and green and covered with orange groves under clear sunny skies.
Bless Michael's heart for always being willing to jump in a car and drive no matter what foreign country we find ourselves in. At least here they drive left hand drive vehicles on the right side of the road.  Once we were settled on a stretch of freeway I turned on the radio on our Ford and the first song I found was "it's all about that bass". Crazy.
As soon as we crossed into Portugal the orange trees vanished and olive groves took their place. Evora is a little place with not much going on....which can be nice (forced relaxation is sometimes required).
There is a chapel decorated, if you will, completely with human bones either as (1) a commentary on the transient mortality of the human condition or (2) because the Catholic church needed to reclaim some real estate to build even more churches. I know I could google it to get the Wikipedia opinion but why bother? It's creepy either way.
There is also a remnant of a Roman temple and really awesome black pork....which is either named as such because it is raised free range and (1) eats acorns or(2) gets suntanned. I know I could google that too but why bother? It's tasty either way.

The Giralda from inside the Alcazar

The most photographed site in Seville today

Years ago when we were in Spain we didn't get to Seville. I always wanted to return. So we endured a12 hour layover and a truly awful flight on Ryanair to get here. This morning we arrived at the Alcazar to find this sign
Seriously? The Game of Thrones? And they close off half of the monument to viewing but don't discount your entry fee one penny?
Still a lovely place but ...

And our last two cheetah

For a total of 11 different individuals.
These two, mother and son, were lying on the road outside our lodge. Mom was limping on her left front leg. And her son, who looks pretty mature but is still apparently too inexperienced to hunt on his own, was noticeably upset and very protective of her. When we had to 'encourage' them to get off the road and to move into the grass he took up a vantage point above her and was clearly on the alert....not happy at all.

 

Then he just had to come down for a little reassuring snuggle.

 

Sure hope they both did OK.



 

And some antelope

A Gemsbok (Oryx)

And a big ole Eland

 

Winding up the Wildlife

On a long layover to get to Seville so I thought I'd finish up with a few photos of some of the less common wildlife so we can start fresh with Spain and Portugal. So here are two birds. The first crazy looking ones I don't even remember what they are. The other is the Blue Heron, the national bird of South Africa.

 

back online

So we have connectivity again – which you’ve probably deduced by the slew of blogposts again.

We are at JNB airport waiting to fly to LHR.

The rest of the trip was good but the game viewing definitely tapered off.

However, the trip was really nice. The weather was generally quite good, the food was amazing, and it was really nice to share it all with Jaeson.

Now that we are back online we find out that Anguilla was hit yesterday by a strong category I hurricane, but we have managed to communicate with our ‘support staff’ on island and will trust that everything is under control since we still have to visit Spain and Portugal before getting back home on the 24^th. It’s definitely hard being halfway around the world at times such as these.

More later from somewhere in Europe.

Stay safe out there.

And another

Jackals also tend to got darting across the plains, but this one stood still for the longest time looking stunning against the bright green regrowth on the burnt landscape.

Good eye, good eye.

And then…

Coming back Friday night, Jaeson had control of the big spotlight that you use to pan the bushes, trees etc along the road we traveled home after dark. He managed to catch the reflection in the eyes of some antelope on the hillside but the real shocker was when we turned onto the access road to our lodge and he saw a chameleon. Even the guides admit that those little guys are hard to find. So kudos to Jaeson for coming up with this one.

Rare sighting or at least rare opporunity to photograph

There are also animals that tend to run around so quickly that you can never get a decent photo of them. Take your basic mongoose for instance. Pretty darn skittish by nature. But we found a den in some rocks right by the side of the road and as most of them went running off this dwarf mongoose sat still guarding the entrance.

Teeny Baby Elephant 1mo

Here's an even TEENIER elephant...just one month old being shepherded by the
other breeding herd.
Everybody say "Awwww".

Cheetahs cheetahs everywhere

The cheetah population here at Welgevonden has increased dramatically
recently which is nice if you like cheetahs.
On the very first day out we came upon one lone cheetah.
On our second day out we found a very successful mother who raised 5 cubs to
maturity. (Sadly one died during the fired that tore through the reserve a
few weeks ago.) But she still has four and we found them lying on some nice
horizontal rocks with one adolescent right next to her.
And then on day four after we watched the lions stalk the warthogs, we found
another mother with her 3 cubs on the rocks under a nice shade tree. In the
picture of these cheetahs you may be able to make out the pinkish hue to
their necks..we must have just missed them feasting on whatever they killed.
The young ones were so fat they kept misjudging the rocks and they own
weight so they kept slipping and falling trying to climb around

On the subject of lions

Friday night we saw more lions but again lazy flat cats who weren't going to do anything more exciting than rolling over on their backs. And Saturday am before the heavy rains came through we found another even older lion (their madness get darker as they get older) way over on a hill after William heard him roar from across the valley. His head was a mere speck in the grass from where we were. Thank goodness for 50x zoom

Fat and lazy backup lioness in warthog stalking

The lion sleeps tonight(or not)

Day four we headed back to the south to where William thought the southern pride of lions was headed when last someone had spurred them. We took a long meandering route to get there(about 90 minutes) while the radio chatter went on and on about the"flat cats" lying in the tall grass barely visible.
When we finally arrived there weren't even any vehicles left looking for them. Luckily I spotted a wee bit of movement (an ear flick or something) in the grass. William pulled over (technically illegally off of the road) and w found a young male lion sleeping in the tall grass. then we saw a female there with him. He tossed a bit for some photos and then he heard something off in the grass. He popped up. She popped up. Another female popped up. And then two more pairs of ears showed themselves.
The male and the first two females headed off to the left so we followed. We lost track of the male. The first female proceeded to crouch down at a line of grass just to the right off an opening. The second female hung back and sat to wait.
I'll have to get somebody's video of this but while the first female Sat intently watching the grass and listening barely moving a muscle suddenly a small warthog appeared at the opening in the grass and stopped cold (you can just see her head above the more leafy shrub to the left of the lioness in this picture )
The lioness didn't move but clearly the warthog sensed something was amiss. For all I know we gave it away as the warthog thought "hmmm, why is that game vehicle full of people stopped right there starting back at this very spot where there is seemingly nothing going on...or wait, is something going on?"
Coz then the warthog disappeared. The lioness crouched lower. When the warthog reappeared she had a half of a dozen of her closest friends or family with her and the all scattered as the male lion came running through the grass from the right.
The female never did move. And the lions missed a chance at a small snack. But you'll see in one of the next photos of the second female sitting and waiting that these lions were write fat so I don't think their hearts or stomachs were really in this hunt.

Leader of the warthog stalking

Quiet morning

Day three was beastly hot so most animals were already hunkered down in the shade when we headed out at 6:30am. But Down on the other side of the hill at the watering hole we did find one of the breeding herds of elephants heading down for a drink all circling around and protecting their littlest member, a 10 month old.

Full moon rising

At the end of a long day worrying about leopards and fleeing charging elephants in musk the full moon rise above the plain as we were enjoying our sundowner cocktails. Life is good.

First morning drive and the hits just keep coming

So we were up the hill heading south when the call came over the radio that some lions in the north had treed a leopard. So we turned right around for the hour drive to that location in the hours that the leopard would still be in the tree. We even managed to see a lone cheetah walking along while we were en route.
And the leopard obliged...well the lions obliged by sleeping under the tree so the poor leopard could not come down. It was fun at first but after the leopard had been stuck up there for over three hours in the hot sun and we had gotten out photos we really wanted the lions to cut him a break and wander off. And as much as we would have rooted for the lioness against the wildebeest the night before we absolutely did not want to see the leopard fall to its death on top of a pride of lions.
William assures us that the leopard eventually go away. But then again I asked him not to tell me any differently no matter what.

And even more excitement

In the afternoon off the first full day we finally found an elephant up close and personal. We were driving along minding our own business and said "oh look a big elephant"  he in turn apparently said "oh look a game vehicle" and proceeded towards us. And then just kept coming. And coming. And William said "oh look he's going to charge us. Hang on"  And we proceeded to back up quickly in the game vehicle across the flat away and down the hill and across the narrow bridge and up the next hill before he stopped. That was pretty exciting.  (Once I get Jim's video I'll try to post it but for now this still image will have to do.)

What a first game drive

The newbies on this trip, Jaeson included, have been spoiled beyond belief. After our three hour ride up to Welgevonden and a very nice lunch we headed out on our first game drive.
It started out nicely enough. When you are new to safari everything is interesting. Water buck. Warthogs. Kudus. Even baboons. We saw them all.
Then as it was getting late we heard weird off a lion sighting. So off we went in search. William our ranger at first "showed" us two lions a way a way laying down on some rocks. I put showed in quotes because he said they were there but you couldn't have proven it by me  (though Jaeson had photos that later confirmed every claim that William made).
Anyway we moved on from there and meet up with the lioness that was stalking some wildebeest. She was plenty focused and very stealthy as you can see in the photo but she waited to long and lost the moment and thus her dinner. But very cool first day.

PS from Australia

More specifically from the Qantas First Class Lounge.

This place rivals the Terminal 5 First Class British Airways Lounge at Heathrow. It's actually a prettier 'room'. And the facial I just received was AWESOME. (Don't worry Jaeson. You are still going to love the BA Lounge.)

But I've gotta run now. I have to start working on that excel sheet to see where I have to send Michael to accrue enough miles to maintain his status. I'll drink a second glass of Veuve Clicquot while I do my calculations., though. First things first.

 

Last post from New Zealand

First of all, to answer the number one question about the last blog: Hokey Pokey is vanilla ice cream with bits of honeycomb toffee mixed in. Our Hokey Pokey ice cream was, in fact, that plus a generous bit of heaven.

Today, the weather was still unsettled. But we were treated to a trip out of the city. We headed west to the Waitakere Regional Park to see the rain forest. We got to see a kauri tree. (They were nearly felled to extinction by the lumber operations run by the early settlers and were saved mostly only by the lack of sophisticated equipment available at the time which limited accessibility to certain areas.)

 

Then we traveled on to the western coast to take in a bit of the 50km plus stretch of volcanic black sand beach at Muriwai. Apparently just three weeks ago the gannet birds had not returned yet from Australia to nest on the cliffs. But since then they have been showing up to stake out their nesting areas and to commence their adorable courtship and breeding rituals.

The stretch of black sand beach at Muriwai was striking and provided a good sample to add to our sand collection.

 

It’s especially sparkly sand and is supposedly very magnetic due to a significant iron ore content. I’ll have to test that out when we get home…which will be Monday. Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave the hotel at 5AM, fly to Sydney, then to Dallas and then to Miami arriving still on Sunday after doing the time warp thing over the dateline heading east. We’ll rest up there overnight before taking what will seem like a mere skip of a plane ride home.  Next travels? South Africa and Portugal…in less than 4 weeks. (We are making up for that ridiculously long 8 month hiatus before this trip.) Safe travels.

 

Auckland

Not much to write about for the past couple of days. Traveling here was not particularly noteworthy. And yesterday was full of professional meetings. By the time our 'free time' for dinner came around the weather (which had been unsuspectedly sunny and beautiful) had turned pretty bleak. So that Michael and I ended up just grabbing a bowl of soup at the nearby Irish Pub. We did get a  nice view back towards the city earlier in the day though:

 

Today's forecast included a 90% chance of rain/thundershowers. We walked along the waterfront where they have a couple of ex-Americas Cup yachts bobbing about but then were off to the War Memorial Museum. It's a great museum but unfortunately we ran through only a few selected exhibits (did you know that Kiwi birds lay eggs that are 1/4 the size of the actual bird?) on our way to the Maori Cultural Show. Given their Polynesian origins you can certainly see the similarities in their dances when compared to those we've seen in Hawaii or the Cook Islands. And the haka (war dance) must have been quite daunting if you were getting ready to fight them. Even the women looked pretty darn fierce.

No that's not a woman, I know. But that's pretty much the gist of the facial expressions in the dance...wide eyes and wagging tongues.

After that we rode up into the Sky Tower (in the first photo) for the view of the city from there. And then we were on our own for a late lunch. We went down to Princes Wharf and split some really wonderful shrimp and calamari. And then stopped in at Giapo's Gelateria in search of the local favorite ice cream flavor Hokey Pokey on the way back to the hotel.

The rain held off until just about then so we were REALLY lucky. The last group dinner is tonight with everyone else leaving tomorrow while we stay on until Sunday morning. What we end up doing tomorrow will be weather dependent. Fingers crossed that our luck holds and it clears again.

 

Wildlife and Fun Facts

This morning we headed out west to the Blue Mountains and the Waradah Cultural Center. Our first picture is of the Three Sisters rock formation that sticks up from the valley floor. Pretty rock. Pretty rock.

Then we spent some time in the cultural center itself to see a 30 minute presentation by some indigenous aboriginal people explaining part of their various traditions and demonstrating some of their traditional dances. Stopped for lunch in the little town of Luera where we had fabuous meat pies for lunch. And then on to the Featherdale Wildlife Park to see a vast array of Australian animals. Of course the biggest hits are always the koalas. Here’s the requisite photo of us beside one:

But here’s another much better picture of a koala on his own without our ugly mugs messing up his close up.

And we were also lucky enough to catch not only a glimpse of but an image of a wee joey:

BTW, kangaroo fun facts….did you know?

-        That females can store fertilized embryos for later use?

-        That they can also choose the sex of their offspring?

-        That they can alter the composition of their milk based on the age and needs of their joeys even when they have two totally different aged offspring nursing at the same time?

-        They can’t effectively move backwards – only forwards and then sideways if needed.

And while we are this little educational sidebar….I forgot to mention from the Great Barrier Reef part of the trip….did you know that all little Nemo clownfish are born male? And that if they lose the one female in their ‘family’ the next dominant male becomes a female? Guess they left that out of the Disney film.

Tonight we have our going away dinner here in Sydney as tomorrow we head off to New Zealand where we will be two time zones back closer to the U.S. but with two hours MORE between us time wise. (I'm so confused!)

Happy First Day of Spring!

Yes, today is the first day of Spring in Australia and New Zealand. Who knew? It just never occurred to me that there was any other way to mark the change of seasons than with the corresponding solstice or equinox, and yet apparently there is. (Luckily you all back home can still wait a few more weeks before you have to accept the fact that summer is over!)

As an aside, meanwhile, a quick check of Wikipedia reveals that in Ireland Spring traditionally starts on February 1st which seems downright insane given how bitterly cold it must still be in February in Ireland. On the other hand, in Sweden the meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average daytime temperature exceeds zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days. That makes some sense at least though this approach allows for Spring to start on different days depending on latitude and elevation.

Anyway, back here in Australia, we have a day of professional visits today so there won't likely be any pretty photos or funny stories. So I'll just mention dinner last night. We decided to stroll down to Chinatown. One little block is just crammed full of Asian restaurants. No way for us to know which one to pick so we chose the most crowded one. While eating our chili king prawns and noodles we noticed a long line snaking away from a tiny window next to a bakery. In the entire time we were eating the line never got any smaller. We had no idea what they were selling, but we were darn sure we wanted some.

So after dinner we joined the line. The sign said:
Emperor Cream Puffs
$.35 for 1
$1 for 3
$2 for 7
$4 for 15
$5 for 20
Fresh and hot

So we were in line to get the local equivalent of Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
Needless to say, at the back of the line we figured we'd get 3 just to see what they were like.
By the middle of the line we realized they were only about 1-1/2" in diameter so we had upped our intended order to 7. But by the front of the line we realized that if you bought 15 or more they actually packed them in a little kind of Tupperware container. So 15 it was.

I wish we'd had the camera, though the sign said 'no photos', because in this tiny little room - not much bigger than a king-sized bed, was one girl and an amazing little assembly-line machine that squirted out the dough on two sides of a cast-iron mold, snapped the sides together like a book, worked its way around like a little model train track, injected the custard and Voila! out dropped the little cream puffs right back in front at the window.

Very cute and VERY YUMMY!


 

Opera House

Today dawned clear and sunny which was a good thing since today was also all about the Sydney Opera House. We admired it and took pictures from across the way from Mrs. Macquarie's Point. Then we admired it and took pictures from inside. Then we admired it some more and took more pictures from a Harbor Cruise during lunch. We saw it from one angle after another which only proved the architect's goal since Mr. Utzon felt that the location of the Opera House out on a point such as it is required that the structure be visually interesting from all sides. And that it is. It is just stunning.
So here you go:

 

Sydney

Today is Saturday down under. It was a quiet day waiting for the rest of the group to arrive after their long flight from the States. Just as well, I suppose, since the weather was pretty bleak. Dreary and drizzling. But it was nice to sleep in and relax. We did some strolling. Went in search of one more inexpensive sweater (since I don't think I should wear the same one every single day for a week...). Checked out the Paddy's Market in search of little souvenirs. That sort of thing.

The group only consists of 10 people total including the two of us. And four of them have been on other trips with us, so learning everyone's names was pretty easy. Dinner was here in the hotel tonight and that was the whole day. Tomorrow we go sight-seeing. That means I will hopefully have better, closer, sunnier (dare I dream) photos of the sights of Sydney. But meanwhile, here's the one that Michael took through the window of the plane when we were landing yesterday....

 

I came to the land down under

Here we are in Australia.

(First of all, let me say that I was SHOCKED to see that I have not posted anything to this site for over 8 MONTHS! What is up with that? Have I really not been anywhere noteworthy since our trip to COPENHAGEN? That is pathetic! We have simply got to do better than that in the future. )

Anyway, after breaking up our trip with a few days visiting in California, we headed to Cairns.As it turns out we can still survive 30 hours of traveling (with 15 hours on one transpacific flight) in coach. But we don't much like it. And we only managed because Michael's status with American Airlines still got us (even without business class tickets) into the Qantas business class lounges. He will lose his executive platinum status this year unless I make him fly to Dubai or some such place for an overnight...and I'm beginning to think there is real value in that!

Anyway, Cairns is a quite enough little town where we came just to take a day snorkeling trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is a huge - spanning about 1400 miles, 900 islands and almost 3000 different reefs. Our tour took us to Michealmas Cay....about 20 miles off of Cairns. A two hour boat ride out, a few hours there, and a ride back in. Coming from the Caribbean we were fearing ridiculously cold water, but with our wet suits on it was quite tolerable. And while the numbers of fish weren't that impressive the coral certainly was.....so many shapes and sizes and colors. Unfortunately the gopro camera photos just don't do it justice. The colors don't reproduce well, and the wide angle lens takes in so much more that what is right in front of you so that giant clams don't look that impressive at all. And the absolutely brilliant colors on the velvety edges of the clams are stunning in person but barely visible in my photos. So here's one of my images, but you'll have to trust me or google someone else's better representations.

















While you are googling, perhaps you can figure out for me why it's so chilly here at night. I checked and we are currently about 17 degrees south. Anguilla is 18 degrees north. That means that we are closer to the Equator here than at home. Now before you snort in disgust at the implication that I don't realize that it is still winter here and summer at home, I know that. BUT never, at ANY time of year, does the temperature in Anguilla drop to 60 degrees at night. How come?

Meanwhile, we are off to Sydney today....for now, G-day.